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Happy Mother's Day

It’s Mother’s Day on Sunday, and all over town you can hear it, feel it, and most of all, smell it.
It’s the sound of champagne corks popping out of bottles, soon to be mixed with ice-cold orange juice – the Mother’s Day Mimosa.

Sometimes in Mammoth, the decks become crowded with celebrants; sometimes not. This year might be a bit on the cool side.

Practically all the local restaurants have special brunches for the Moms. Eggs Benedict abound and the scent of hollandaise and poached eggs, Canadian bacon and fruit dishes permeate the air.

It’s a grand time in the United States, and it has been since 1868, when Ann Jarvis created a committee to establish a “Mother’s Friendship Day,” whose purpose was “to reunite families that had been divided during the Civil War.”

She wanted to expand it into an annual memorial for mothers, but she died in 1905, before the celebration became popular. Her daughter Anna Jarvis continued her mother’s efforts.

It’s been a wildly popular day since.

According to IBISWorld, a publisher of business research, Americans will spend approximately $2.6 billion on flowers, $1.53 billion on pampering gifts – like spa treatments – and another $68 million on greeting cards.

Mother’s Day generated about 7.8 percent of the U.S. jewelry industry’s annual revenue in 2008, with custom gifts like mother’s rings.

But back to the history of it all:

The holiday was declared officially by the state of West Virginia in 1910, and the rest of states followed quickly.

On May 8, 1914, the U.S. Congress passed a law designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day and requesting a proclamation.

On May 9, 1914 President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation declaring the first national Mother’s Day as a day for American citizens to show the flag in honor of those mothers whose sons had died in war.

In 1934, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved a stamp commemorating the holiday.

In May 2008 the U.S. House of Representatives voted twice on a resolution commemorating Mother’s Day.
So have at it all you sons and daughters.

It’s Mother’s Day, up and down Main Street and Old Mammoth Road, the Village and burgs beyond.